TJHSST vs Base School for College Admissions

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In general, I would never base a TJ decision on college admissions. I would say one caveat: my kid did well above my expectations on college admissions because they applied to SLACs. In at 8/9 schools. And the one deny is a non-VA school with 150+!TJ applicants. And they got amazing merit money from school that offer it. Even some top SLACs get no TJ applicants in a given year. But, they are wonderful for some things, like science PhDs and med school admissions.

Competition out of TJ for UVA and top engineering CS programs is brutal. Your kid will get a better school with weaker credentials. They can’t take all 200 TJ kids who apply.

But wherever your kid goes, they will be better prepared out of TJ.

[b]Where are you more likely to get an Ivy? Nowhere. That’s just reality.

LOL..I agree. It ain't easy from any school. Good schools are possible for any school but Ivies are completely different material. You will get into an IVY from your base school or from TJ if you are a IVY material. Less hard work maybe from base school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In general, I would never base a TJ decision on college admissions. I would say one caveat: my kid did well above my expectations on college admissions because they applied to SLACs. In at 8/9 schools. And the one deny is a non-VA school with 150+!TJ applicants. And they got amazing merit money from school that offer it. Even some top SLACs get no TJ applicants in a given year. But, they are wonderful for some things, like science PhDs and med school admissions.

Competition out of TJ for UVA and top engineering CS programs is brutal. Your kid will get a better school with weaker credentials. They can’t take all 200 TJ kids who apply.

But wherever your kid goes, they will be better prepared out of TJ.

[b]Where are you more likely to get an Ivy? Nowhere. That’s just reality.

LOL..I agree. It ain't easy from any school. Good schools are possible for any school but Ivies are completely different material. You will get into an IVY from your base school or from TJ if you are a IVY material. Less hard work maybe from base school.

What does Ivy material mean, though? How do you demonstrate it? MIT is more of a meritocracy, and tops at TJ will help. But Ivys -- almost any graduate of any FCPS school (at least in the top 1/4th) will do fine at the grade inflated Ivy's. Ivy material means hooks. Legacies from families that donate, or non legacies from families that donate a lot, or something they are looking for. A kid who does well (e.g., all A & 1500+ SAT's) may not be ivy material.

But, the good news is Ivy's are overrated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In general, I would never base a TJ decision on college admissions. I would say one caveat: my kid did well above my expectations on college admissions because they applied to SLACs. In at 8/9 schools. And the one deny is a non-VA school with 150+!TJ applicants. And they got amazing merit money from school that offer it. Even some top SLACs get no TJ applicants in a given year. But, they are wonderful for some things, like science PhDs and med school admissions.

Competition out of TJ for UVA and top engineering CS programs is brutal. Your kid will get a better school with weaker credentials. They can’t take all 200 TJ kids who apply.

But wherever your kid goes, they will be better prepared out of TJ.

[b]Where are you more likely to get an Ivy? Nowhere. That’s just reality.

LOL..I agree. It ain't easy from any school. Good schools are possible for any school but Ivies are completely different material. You will get into an IVY from your base school or from TJ if you are a IVY material. Less hard work maybe from base school.

What does Ivy material mean, though? How do you demonstrate it? MIT is more of a meritocracy, and tops at TJ will help. But Ivys -- almost any graduate of any FCPS school (at least in the top 1/4th) will do fine at the grade inflated Ivy's. Ivy material means hooks. Legacies from families that donate, or non legacies from families that donate a lot, or something they are looking for. A kid who does well (e.g., all A & 1500+ SAT's) may not be ivy material.

But, the good news is Ivy's are overrated.

I completely understand what you are saying. I was talking about IVY student who is not a legacy and has no hooks. They just have a great resume - High GPA, 1500 +SAT and awesome extra curricular activities where they were nationally recognized. These kids will be fine from either base or TJ School but for STEM school like MIT, I agree with you, TJ will help.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If your goal is UVA TJ might not be your best option. UVA is not the biggest fan of TJ and they accept a lot of students that they know will not attend UVA in the end. So they can say they accepted 60 students but they know most wont attend.

Why are so many people obsessed with UVA? It's basically a party school with an ok engineering program. Going to TJ to try to get into UVA is just stupid.

[Anonymous]

I don't think TJ helps you get in anywhere.

But I do think at certain pressure-cooker STEM programs for college (certain MIT majors, engineering at Berkeley), TJ does give kids preparation for that type of environment once they are there. My TJ (and Stuy) friends were not fazed by the competitiveness or workload, while kids from other schools were more likely to be shocked by that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If your goal is UVA TJ might not be your best option. UVA is not the biggest fan of TJ and they accept a lot of students that they know will not attend UVA in the end. So they can say they accepted 60 students but they know most wont attend.

Why are so many people obsessed with UVA? It's basically a party school with an ok engineering program. Going to TJ to try to get into UVA is just stupid.

A lot of TJ families probably aren't really targeting UVA. UVA isn't really a top STEM school. The families are probably thinking TJ will help with admissions to Ivy+, top engineering, science, an CS schools. For UVA's part, I think enthusiasm for TJ has gone down because many TJ grads reject their offers for other schools. It is complicated.

[Anonymous]

TJ helps you with high-end college admissions if you are a well-rounded, genuinely interesting kid with lots of other stuff to offer besides the fact that you made it through TJ. It's a separator from the other kids who have excellent grades, tons of great extracurriculars, leadership experience, etc. Being able to say "oh, by the way, I did all this while excelling at TJ" is a huge separator.

If going to TJ means that you will have to choose between an exceptional academic profile and an exceptional extracurricular profile, it will HURT you in the college process.

[Anonymous]

For anyone who can make into TJ, just make an assessment on the likelihood if your kid will be in the top 10-15% of his class at TJ. Any student in the top 10% pretty much is guaranted that he will go to a top school.

If one can't make into the top 10% of his class at TJ, he would be better off attending the base school (assuming it's still a good base school, not a crappy one) as far as the advantage goes for a shot at the top colleges, and for other good colleges.

Every year's stats mostly verified this estimate.

[Anonymous]

Another thing to consider is the benefits of the rigor of a TJ education. Many, if not most, TJ grads find they are extremely well prepared for college. My D and her TJ friends are finding college easier than HS and this includes rigorous college programs at UChicago, Princeton and Carnegie Mellon. Her friends at UVA are cruising through their coursework there at least through the first 2 years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Another thing to consider is the benefits of the rigor of a TJ education. Many, if not most, TJ grads find they are extremely well prepared for college. My D and her TJ friends are finding college easier than HS and this includes rigorous college programs at UChicago, Princeton and Carnegie Mellon. Her friends at UVA are cruising through their coursework there at least through the first 2 years.

+1 my kid (and friends) are having the same experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For anyone who can make into TJ, just make an assessment on the likelihood if your kid will be in the top 10-15% of his class at TJ. Any student in the top 10% pretty much is guaranted that he will go to a top school.

If one can't make into the top 10% of his class at TJ, he would be better off attending the base school (assuming it's still a good base school, not a crappy one) as far as the advantage goes for a shot at the top colleges, and for other good colleges.

Every year's stats mostly verified this estimate.

Just curious - How do you know if your child is at top 10%. Any criteria on post junior GPA that would define?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For anyone who can make into TJ, just make an assessment on the likelihood if your kid will be in the top 10-15% of his class at TJ. Any student in the top 10% pretty much is guaranted that he will go to a top school.

If one can't make into the top 10% of his class at TJ, he would be better off attending the base school (assuming it's still a good base school, not a crappy one) as far as the advantage goes for a shot at the top colleges, and for other good colleges.

Every year's stats mostly verified this estimate.

Just curious - How do you know if your child is at top 10%. Any criteria on post junior GPA that would define?

If you have a 4.45 or above at the end of Junior year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Another thing to consider is the benefits of the rigor of a TJ education. Many, if not most, TJ grads find they are extremely well prepared for college. My D and her TJ friends are finding college easier than HS and this includes rigorous college programs at UChicago, Princeton and Carnegie Mellon. Her friends at UVA are cruising through their coursework there at least through the first 2 years.

I had heard somewhere that TJ students at UVA have among the highest average GPAs of high school cohorts over a certain size.

Over time, the number of TJ students going to UVA has been trending down.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Another thing to consider is the benefits of the rigor of a TJ education. Many, if not most, TJ grads find they are extremely well prepared for college. My D and her TJ friends are finding college easier than HS and this includes rigorous college programs at UChicago, Princeton and Carnegie Mellon. Her friends at UVA are cruising through their coursework there at least through the first 2 years.

This is going to be true of just about any college outside of MIT and Caltech.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Another thing to consider is the benefits of the rigor of a TJ education. Many, if not most, TJ grads find they are extremely well prepared for college. My D and her TJ friends are finding college easier than HS and this includes rigorous college programs at UChicago, Princeton and Carnegie Mellon. Her friends at UVA are cruising through their coursework there at least through the first 2 years.

I had heard somewhere that TJ students at UVA have among the highest average GPAs of high school cohorts over a certain size.

Over time, the number of TJ students going to UVA has been trending down.

This is a consequence of the fact it is much harder to get into UVA from TJ. Over half of the applicants are rejected from TJ, so you need to be near the upper half of TJ to get in, hence the higher GPA.